This is the most common request we get at Wellthcare, the most recent being over lunch in Manhattan. I was dining with Scott Liebman, one of the Wellthcare Explorers, and his friend wanted a concrete example. I replied with my favourite example, Jersey Post’s recently launched ‘Call & Check’ service and today we’re lucky enough to be sharing an interview with its founder, Joe Dickinson.

MedCrunch: So, Joe, tell me about the proposed service of ‘Call & Check’?

Joe: It was based on the needs of a rapidly aging population and how a postal operator could help in the community's jigsaw. It’s a very simple idea. The postal guy, who visits everyday, will knock on the door and ask, "How are you?" and just check and see how they are that day, and give a little bit of social interaction for five or six minutes. If they require things from the community, be it medical or social, the postal guy could then link them back to the right people.

I’m writing this Log post from Las Vegas, USA, where I have come to experience the Downtown Project, an attempt to transform the downtown area into the most community-focused large city in the world. I think it’ll take me a few days to digest what I am learning but its community focus very much reminds me of a story that lit the touch paper on Wellthcare and I thought I’d share it. Richard Smith, the Director of United Health Group’s Chronic Disease Initiative and the former Editor-in-Chief of the BMJ shared the story as a blog post. In essence, his mother has no short-term memory and he was asking, “How much have the health and social services helped my mother?” I encourage you to read the full post but this series of excerpt gives you a flavour of what he and his family were dealing with: